Although war still rages, it is already time to start looking to Iraq’s future.
All but the most willfully blind will have seen that no accommodation is either possible nor in fact desirable with Ba’athist Socialism, and that must shape how the allies act not just now but when victory has been won.
Since 1945, we have had the examples of the overthrow of many totalitarian regimes: National Socialism in Germany, Fascism in Italy, Fascist Imperialism in Japan and Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe… each informs us in very different ways.
In Russia, Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia, Communist totalitarianism was cast off by internal dissent, made possible by a decaying security apparatus and enervated ruling elite that were the inevitable long term result of Marxist economics.
The good thing about the momentous sloughing off of Communist tyranny across the Slavic world was that it came with a relatively small price in blood even in places like Romania. However therein also lies the cost…
Throughout eastern Europe the success of civil and political society breaking out of the toxic legacy of communism has been very patchy indeed. As the overthrow of communism was political, the inevitable political cost was that accommodations with ‘former’ communists were made… in many cases former communists came to dominate the post-communist nations, effortlessly exchanging command economics for so called ‘crony capitalism’. In nations like Serbia, the thuggish national socialist elite retains control over large sections of society as it always did: with assassinations, fear and brutality.
In Germany, Italy and Japan however, the overthrow came not from political processes but at the point of a foreign bayonet. In East Germany unfortunately the bayonets were those of the equally monstrous Soviets but elsewhere it was the Western Allies who crushed the Nazi and Fascist regimes… and brought in their wake a process called ‘De-Nazification’.
In occupied post war Germany member of the Nazi Party were simply forbidden from participating in politics and excluded from any ‘sensitive’ jobs. Leading members of the German National Socialist German Workers Party were put on trial and many were hanged. The British even had what can only be described as military ‘hit squads’ ranging across Occupied Germany in 1945 summarily executing upper and middle rank German officers responsible for atrocities against British personnel during the war.
A ‘De-Ba’athification’ process is what must follow the destruction of Saddam Hussain’s state. Mere membership of the Ba’athist Party must be taken as prima facie evidence that the person is unfit for any political role whatsoever and membership in the Fedayeen Saddam must carry with it a presumption of guilt for crimes. When an anti-Ba’athist Iraqi regime is in place, they must not only not be restrained from conducting their own systematic purging of Iraqi society, but must be required to do so.
Similarly the allies must not get squeamish and should make no apologies for the use of violence to expunge Ba’athist toxins from the Iraqi state and society… Something that many libertarians fail to understand is that when normal civil society has collapsed, normal rules of civil interaction and legal niceties are not just impossible, they are madness. When the guns are out, it is the logic of the lifeboat which applies, not the logic of the lawsuit.
Ba’athist Socialism is institutionalised civil violence and unlike communism, it could have lasted indefinitely as it fed like a vampire on the rich blood of Iraq’s oil wealth. It is not enough to destroy Saddam Hussain’s armies, Ba’athist Socialism too will have to be killed just as National Socialism was, quite literally.
In a similar vein, hopefully the Fedayeen responsible for executing British prisoners and massacring fleeing Iraqi civilians will be summarily shot by British soldiers if they are captured when Basra is finally taken (that may of course happen regardless of any ‘policy decisions’ in London). The most effective way to do this and the best way for Iraqi society in the long run, is simply not to take any Fedayeen prisoners, except a few perhaps for intelligence gathering purposes. Rough justice is the only justice there is at such times.
Perry
You are trying to sell ice to the Esqimos.
“Rough justice is the only justice” there ever was in the ME. They don’t need an intellectual(?) British Gentleman(?) type to teach them that.
Fear not – you will see a lot of “rough justice” done.
Spot on Perry, I couldn’t agree more. Let’s just hope the Coalition has the political will to do it, and to keep France from meddling.
Jacob… I understand that but I would like the occupying power to allow things to take their ‘natural course’ rather than try to do something idiotic like make everyone play nice when the fighting it over.
Leave the forgiveness bit to God.
Perry, Don’t overestimate the capabilities of the occupying powers. They will never be able to control every Iraqi person.
They weren’t able to prevent spontaneous justice in Kosovo and they probably never tried.
There are a lot of Iraqis with scores to settle.
Yes, yes. We have to rid the world of communism… of cource the notion that political coercion and force, like our current objectivist jihad in Iraq, can produce freedom could have been taken straight from the pages of Das Kapital. Is there a better catalyst for the growth of government than war? Libertarians…
Neil Eden… So by that logic, no one should have fought against Nazi Germany for fear of causing a growth of government at home. Riiiiiiiiight.
There was already political coersion and force in Iraq coming from the Baathist fucks who rule there, so what the hell are you talking about?
And what does objectivism have to do with anything anyone has writen?
Although Mr. de Havilland and I have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past, I totally agree with him on this.
My only comment (and this is not an objection to his position) is that de-Ba’athification cannot and will not hppen overnight, any more than de-Nazification in post-WWII Germany did.
Snide…
A larger government would be preferable to being conquered by the Nazis, but in the US’s case, that was hardly likely. They had lost the Battle of Britain and were being pushed back at Stalingrad by the time we got in the mix, and Hitler war socialism had destroyed Germany’s economy. And when is was all over, all we got from it was an enormous national debt, the preset policy of our government of subsidizing former allies and enemies to this day, and gave a far greater killer (Stalin) a free hand in Eastern Europe. Hardly worth the death of 407,000 American troops to me
(And we saved far more Jews from Hitler, by the way, by allowing free immigration to our country, which long had ended by WWII, than we did by firebombing Dresden.)
There certainly was political coercion in Iraq before we invaded, the difference is, of course, I wasn’t paying for it. I feel sorry for the Iraqi living under Saddam’s harsh rule, but that doesn’t mean I want to trade places with them. A unending war against every dictator in the Mid-East, which plenty of Liberventionists are advocating, will result in more money taken out of my paycheck, more restriction made by the government on what I can do, and puts me in danger by breeding more hatred towards me by the people were killing to set free. So you’ll forgive me if I think this whole mess is a bad idea.
Something that many libertarians fail to understand is that when normal civil society has collapsed, normal rules of civil interaction and legal niceties are not just impossible, they are madness.
Oh, how true. Hitchens made a similar comment in a Reason magazine article and I heartily agree. The realities of war and retribution for decades of brutal repression cannot be easily fit into the tidy libertarian ideology box. Allowing Ba’athists to remain in positions of power makes no more sense than leaving gangrenous tissue during an amputation.
Many, many scores will be settled in Iraq and we should allow them to be settled while making sure the violence does not snowball into a civil war or mindless pogroms. In an “honor-based” society like the Arabs’, I fear that preventing this retribution might turn the populace against those who would govern after Saddam’s fall.
Not all justice is dispensed in courtrooms.
I am as a kurdish ,I want to say that there is no difference betweem ba’thisim and nazism .
both crucify human rights .
we as kurds suffered alot .
our liberation is worthy and now we can fell our existence in life .
Very nice website